Marathon Weekend 2027

[The Expert]

Thank you @camaker for making this happen every year!

 

[Psymonds]

So I had to fix something on my reservation, and the phone agent asked my why we had picked the resort we had, I don't think I'd ever been asked before.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Yay for The Lion King, and yay for James Earl Jones! (Closet sweep? )

Follow-up on the March Movie Madness: brackets aside, if someone asked you what your favorite Disney movie was, what would you say?

 

[marty3d]

Yay for The Lion King, and yay for James Earl Jones! (Closet sweep? )

Follow-up on the March Movie Madness: brackets aside, if someone asked you what your favorite Disney movie was, what would you say?

I had to go back 71 pages to make sure I didn't contradict myself on this question due to recency bias (I just rewatched it Saturday night). Mary Poppins.

@camaker Thanks for pulling this together yet again - this was a lot of fun with quite a few surprises along the way. I think you might need to start putting together the rules for the musical bracket challenge before MW 27 as I think that one may be even more contentious than this year's! Starting on my list now....

 

[nancipants]

Ok, then, everyone head to @nancipants house for MW!

@Herding_Cats daughter has already invited herself over to swim in the pool.

 

[nancipants]

Yay for The Lion King, and yay for James Earl Jones! (Closet sweep? )

Follow-up on the March Movie Madness: brackets aside, if someone asked you what your favorite Disney movie was, what would you say?

Ironically, considering I voted for Empire in the final bracket, I would say The Lion King. So I'm not mad about the results.

Thanks, @camaker!

 

[jenljeffers1989]

SAFD: Definitely team on site. I'm trying to eventually make my way through every Disney hotel, so I've stayed at a few for different weekends. My favorite for marathon weekend was Polynesian due to the monorail, and for Wine and Dine I loved Beach Club for the easy walk back into Epcot after the half and a 5 minute walk back to my room to have a nap during a park day. I did not love AKL for a previous Wine and Dine because it's so far out, and I did love Shades of Green specifically because I did Wine and Dine a year that the half starting line was in the MK parking lot and I got to walk right over.

 

[WDW 4 ME]

Over the course of my rD weekends, I've stayed a several resorts. My take:
All Stars - low cost, and their bathrooms till have tub-showers where you can soak after races. Get a room away from the pools and it isn't bad
Pop Century - recently this has been my go-to because of the vibe (can't believe I'm using that word), the happy coincidence that it has became an informal runner HQ, and the Skyliner access. I always ask for rooms as far away as possible, and upper floors. Get out in 70s land and your door is facing Hourglass lake. Very tranquil.
Grand Floridian - Got to stay there as part of DW's work convention. Fairly quiet and gotta love the access to MK and the resort monorail
Coronado Springs - Have gotten to stay their twice as part of DW's work convention, once in the tower, once in a bungalow. I really liked the bungalow and it was a fairly short walk out to the bus stop.
PO Riverside - I just left my first stay there. OMG it is so quiet compared to the other resorts. I'm booked for Pop for MW 2027 due to length of stay, but I'll have PO on my mind going forward.

Riverside is the best! WL is our favorite deluxe and riverside ia favorite moderate. The quiet, laid back atmosphere is soooo relaxing. After PW, we found hammocks on one of the trails and took little 30 minute power naps. Glorious!

 

[DianaMB333]

I had to go back 71 pages to make sure I didn't contradict myself on this question

X2…. Coco (!).. (maybe tied with Lion King, Encanto, Mary Poppins)

@camaker thank you!

 

[Herding_Cats]

I've looked at it on and off for years but it just was never the right time. Since I'm now always doing MW and I always want to stay at a Crescent Lake resort, the math just works for me (at resale - not direct). I believe @Herding_Cats mentioned 5 years as a break even. That's the same number I came up with - and that assumes 0% increase in Swolphin or DVC rental rates over that 5 years. Since I know when I'm coming down each year, I'll always be able to use the 11 month booking window. Honestly, I should have done this 3 years ago.

The trick is that for me, I don't consider it a "break even" if you count the dues. It's just a break even on our purchase price. Predicting what dues will continue to rise to is very difficult, but if after 5 years I'm "only" paying $1500 for a one-bedroom at Disney for a week in January, I think I'm doing pretty well. Our dues are not that high at this point, but by year 5 they may be.

I will say, that owning DVC makes it *very* easy to decide to go to Disney. I don't have to factor in the cost of a resort, just airfare and whatever we decide to do while we are there. It's easy-peasy. And I would *never ever* book a deluxe resort with cash, so even comparing to what we would stay in at a value or moderate.....it just works. Renting points would ultimately be cheaper, but I'm too much of a control freak to not be able to modify my trip at this point.

 

[Novatrix]

I calculated a 10.5% IRR on my Beach Club resale contract, with a 7.3 year breakeven compared to renting from David's (assuming 6.5% dues increase, David's price increase 3%).

Comparing to a rack rate Beach Club resort room, it was like 2.7 years.

Agree though, I would never want to rent and not be able to control my reservation.

Definitely agree, once you buy, it definitely throws inertia towards Disney for trips if you have points available.

 

[marty3d]

I calculated a 10.5% IRR on my Beach Club resale contract, with a 7.3 year breakeven compared to renting from David's (assuming 6.5% dues increase, David's price increase 3%).

Comparing to a rack rate Beach Club resort room, it was like 2.7 years.

Agree though, I would never want to rent and not be able to control my reservation.

Definitely agree, once you buy, it definitely throws inertia towards Disney for trips if you have points available.

Interesting- your numbers are similar to mine but using different comparisons. I've struggled renting BWV or BCV even at the 11 month window so I used Swolphin as my comparable with 4% increase (10 year average), 6% for dues increase.

That gives me an 11.2% IRR and breakeven of 5 years. A large part of that is that I have a fully loaded contract - if I didn't have those points in year 1 it drives my IRR down to 7.8%.

Numbers would be worse if I compared to renting or much better if I compared to booking BC or BW directly.

ETA: I also assumed $0 residual value as I plan to own it until 2042.

 

[Novatrix]

Interesting- your numbers are similar to mine but using different comparisons. I've struggled renting BWV or BCV even at the 11 month rate so I used Swolphin as my comparable with 4% increase (10 year average), 6% for dues increase.

That gives me an 11.2% IRR and breakeven of 5 years. A large part of that is that I have a fully loaded contract - if I didn't have those points in year 1 it drives my IRR down to 7.8%.

Numbers would be worse if I compared to renting or much better if I compared to booking BC or BW directly.

ETA: I also assumed $0 residual value as I plan to own it until 2042.

Ditto on the $0 residual.

Technically, my true calculation should've been totaling the number of hours I was spending stalking the DVC website to try and move my MW reservation over to BWV/BCV, and the number it was increasing each year, figuring in an hourly rate for myself. I could've justified the purchase years ago!

 

[Barca33Runner]

Follow-up on the March Movie Madness: brackets aside, if someone asked you what your favorite Disney movie was, what would you say?

When I think of Disney my mind immediately goes to animated features. Even though I love the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises, my mind would never go to those films when asked for my “favorite Disney movie”. In addition, even though Pixar has officially been part of Disney for a while I still don’t really think of them as Disney animation. For my childhood, my answer to that question was always Sword in the Stone or The Little Mermaid. It shifted based on mood or audience; I think I probably said Aladdin for a while as well.

I’ve never had a more definitive answer to the question of what my favorite Disney movies is than I have for the last couple years. My favorite Disney movie is Encanto. I love everything about Encanto: the songs, the characters (somehow I manage to relate to, empathize with and see myself in all of them), the colors, the story, etc. (as I said, everything).

As a Disney fan, there are very few animated features I don’t enjoy revisiting (looking at you, Wish). My #2-25 could probably look very different from one day to the next. Encanto is an easy # 1 for now though.